Cathine Lavina Sellers, 39, of Roswell was convicted in January of possession with intent to distribute the opioid fentanyl and two synthetic opioids, furanyl-fentanyl and U-47700. From her townhome, Sellers was dealing counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained those other opioids. Fentanyl, authorities say, is a narcotic so potent it can kill someone exposed to a dose the size of a few grains of sand, making it a danger to not only its users, but also police officers who confiscate it.

Cathine Sellers in a booking photo from a Jan. 13, 2017 arrest in Roswell. (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office)

Sellers was arrested in 2017 after selling pills to her ex, who was working as a confidential source for the Drug Enforcement Administration and had informed for the Sandy Springs Police Department since 2016.

Suburban drug-dealing is now a common part of the opioid epidemic, and authorities previously told the Reporter that fentanyl and synthetic opioids are part of a new – and sometimes lethal – cat-and-mouse game, where traffickers create new opioids that are not yet illegal.

In a press release about Sellers’ sentencing, Byung J. “BJay” Pak, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, noted the lethal potential of fentanyl.

“These counterfeit pills posed a particular danger to our communities, as they are comparably 50 times more potent than prescription oxycodone and present a substantially higher risk of overdose,” Pak said.

Sellers and her case were profiled earlier this year as one installment of the Reporter’s exclusive four-part series “Coping with a Crisis: Opioid Addiction in the Suburbs.” The series looked at how local families, nurses, prosecutors, recovering addicts and others are responding to a growing epidemic that already kills more people than cars, guns or breast cancer each year.